Do Casual Employees Get Leave in Australia? What Employers Need to Know

Many Australian employers believe that casual employees get paid annual leave and personal leave the same way permanents do, just calculated differently. That’s wrong, and it’s the opposite mistake to the “casuals get nothing” myth. Under the National Employment Standards, casual employees are not entitled to paid annual leave or paid personal/carer’s leave at all — the 25% casual loading exists specifically to compensate for the absence of those entitlements, not to fund them.

Understanding what casuals actually get — and don’t — matters because both directions of confusion cause compliance problems: paying “phantom” annual leave accrual that isn’t owed wastes money and confuses payslips, while denying the things casuals genuinely are entitled to (superannuation, paid public holidays when rostered, paid family and domestic violence leave) is a real underpayment. This guide sets out the correct position for each entitlement.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult an employment lawyer for guidance specific to your organization.

What Is a Casual Employee?

A casual employee is someone who is engaged on an irregular or part-time basis, without a firm commitment to ongoing work. Key characteristics:

• No guaranteed hours
• Flexible scheduling
• Can be terminated with no notice (in some cases)
• Paid a “casual loading” (25% under most awards) in lieu of paid leave, notice of termination, and redundancy pay
• Still entitled to the leave types that apply regardless of employment type: unpaid carer’s leave, paid family and domestic violence leave, community service leave, and public holiday pay when rostered to work

Important: The Fair Work Act provides a test to determine whether someone is truly casual or should be classified as permanent. Courts have found that many workers labeled “casual” are actually entitled to permanent status with all the associated benefits.

Annual Leave for Casuals

Entitlement

Casual employees are not entitled to paid annual leave under the National Employment Standards. Only full-time and part-time employees accrue the standard 4 weeks per year, per the Fair Work Ombudsman. There is no separate casual accrual running in the background — a casual’s leave balance for annual leave is, correctly, zero.

For Permanent Employees:

• Leave accrues: 4 weeks ÷ 52 weeks = 0.077 weeks per week worked
• Paid at ordinary rate of pay
• Carried over and managed

For Casual Employees:

• No annual leave accrues, full stop
• The 25% casual loading is paid instead, in lieu of annual leave, personal leave, notice of termination, and redundancy pay — it is compensation for not having those entitlements, not a mechanism for delivering them

Why the Casual Loading Is Not “Annual Leave in Disguise”

A common payroll mistake is treating the loading as though 7.69 of its 25 percentage points is a running annual leave balance the casual could one day cash out or take as time off. It isn’t. The loading is a flat premium on the ordinary hourly rate with no associated liability that accrues, carries over, or gets paid out on termination.

Example: A casual works 20 hours/week at a $30/hour base rate.

• Loaded rate: $30 × 1.25 = $37.50/hour
• Weekly pay: 20 × $37.50 = $750
• There is no separate “annual leave” line item and no leave balance building up — the $150/week premium over base pay ($7.50 × 20) is the full extent of the compensation for foregone leave and job security.

The Exception: Award or Agreement Cover, or Casual Conversion

Two situations change this:

1. A modern award or enterprise agreement occasionally grants a specific class of casual (e.g. long-term regular casuals in a small number of awards) an annual-leave-like entitlement on top of the loading. This is uncommon — check the applicable award before assuming it applies.
2. Casual conversion: an employee who has been engaged on a regular pattern of hours for at least 6 months (12 months for small business employers) has a right under the Fair Work Act to request conversion to permanent employment. Once converted, ordinary permanent annual leave accrual starts from the conversion date — not retrospectively for the casual period. See our guide to how the casual loading works for more on what the 25% is actually compensating for.

Personal/Carer’s Leave for Casuals

Entitlement

Casual employees are not entitled to paid personal/carer’s leave. The NES’s 10 days of paid personal/carer’s leave per year applies only to full-time and part-time employees, per the Fair Work Ombudsman. As with annual leave, the casual loading is the compensation for this — not a funding mechanism running alongside it.

What Casuals Do Get

• 2 days unpaid carer’s leave per occasion, available to every employee including casuals, to care for or support an immediate family or household member who is sick, injured, or facing an unexpected emergency.
• Unpaid compassionate leave on the death, or life-threatening illness/injury, of a close family member (2 days per occasion; miscarriage and stillbirth are separately provided for).
• Paid family and domestic violence leave — 10 days per year, available to all employees including casuals from their first day, and this one genuinely is paid at the full rate. See Fair Work Ombudsman.

Practical Application

Because there’s no accrual, there’s nothing to track in a leave balance for personal/carer’s leave itself. What payroll does need to track for casuals is usage of the unpaid carer’s/compassionate leave occasions (for record-keeping) and the paid family and domestic violence leave balance, which does reset each work anniversary and does need to be recorded like any other paid leave type.

Public Holidays for Casuals

Entitlement

Casual employees are entitled to paid leave on public holidays that fall on a day they would normally work.

How to Pay

If a public holiday falls on a day the casual would normally work:

• They are entitled to payment at the ordinary rate of pay (not the casual loading)
• Payment is: ordinary hourly rate × ordinary hours for that day

Example: A casual normally works 20 hours/week on Mondays and Wednesdays. If ANZAC Day falls on a Monday, they are entitled to 10 hours at $30/hour = $300.

If a public holiday falls on a non-working day (e.g., Saturday), the casual is generally not entitled to payment in lieu unless the award specifies otherwise.

Penalties for Working on Public Holidays

If a casual is required to work on a public holiday, they are entitled to:

• Ordinary rate of pay + penalty loading (e.g., 150% or 200% depending on award)
• Not the casual loading + penalty; just the penalty on top of ordinary rate

Example: A casual works on ANZAC Day at the ordinary rate of $30/hour with a 150% penalty:

• Ordinary rate: $30
• Penalty: $30 × 1.5 = $45
• Total: $75/hour

Superannuation for Casuals

Casual employees are entitled to superannuation guarantee contributions on every dollar earned, regardless of how little they earn. The $450/month earnings threshold that used to exempt low-earning casuals was abolished from 1 July 2022, per the Australian Taxation Office. There is no minimum weekly or monthly earnings figure left to check.

Contributions must be:

• 12% of ordinary time earnings (the rate reached its final scheduled step on 1 July 2025 and is not currently set to rise further)
• Paid to the superannuation fund of the employee’s choice
• From 1 July 2026, paid on the same day as wages under the “payday super” reform, replacing the previous 28-days-after-quarter-end deadline — see Fair Work Ombudsman

Many employers misunderstand casual super: it’s not optional, it isn’t offset by the casual loading, and there is no earnings floor below which it stops applying.

Parental Leave for Casuals

Casual employees can be entitled to up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave (extendable to 24 months by agreement), but only if they meet the same “regular and systematic” test that applies to casual conversion: employed on a regular and systematic basis for at least 12 months, with a reasonable expectation that work would have continued on that basis but for the birth or adoption, per the Fair Work Ombudsman. An irregular, on-call casual with no consistent pattern does not qualify — service length alone is not the test.

Key Differences: Casual vs. Permanent

Entitlement	Permanent	Casual
Annual Leave	4 weeks/year, accrued and paid	None — compensated by the 25% loading instead
Personal/Carer’s Leave	10 days/year, paid, accrued	None paid — 2 days unpaid carer’s leave per occasion only
Family & DV Leave	10 days/year, paid, from day one	10 days/year, paid, from day one — identical to permanents
Public Holidays	Paid at ordinary rate	Paid at ordinary rate, but only if rostered to work that day
Superannuation	12% of OTE, no earnings threshold	12% of OTE, no earnings threshold — identical to permanents
Job Security	Unfair dismissal protections	Limited protections; casual conversion rights after 6-12 months
Termination Notice	1-4 weeks depending on service	Generally none required (check award)

Common Mistakes with Casual Leave

1. Paying “Phantom” Annual Leave

Some payroll systems still run a 7.69% annual leave accrual line for casuals out of habit. This isn’t a minor rounding error — it’s paying an entitlement that isn’t owed, on top of the loading that already compensates for its absence.

2. Confusing the Casual Loading with a Leave Fund

The casual loading compensates for the absence of paid annual leave, personal leave, notice, and redundancy pay — all at once. It is not a running balance, and none of it is refundable or payable out on termination.

3. Assuming No Leave Entitlements Apply at All

The opposite mistake: casuals do get unpaid carer’s leave, paid family and domestic violence leave, public holiday pay when rostered, and superannuation. Denying these because “they’re just casual” is a genuine underpayment.

4. Not Paying the Ordinary Rate for Public Holidays Worked

Casuals must be paid at the ordinary rate plus any public holiday penalty (not the casual loading rate) for a public holiday they actually work.

5. Applying a Superannuation Earnings Threshold

There is no earnings floor for casual superannuation. The old $450/month exemption was abolished in July 2022 — contributions are owed from the first dollar.

6. Misclassifying Permanents as Casuals

If someone is working regular hours and has some job security, they may be entitled to permanent status even if you hired them as casual. The Fair Work Commission uses a multi-factor test to determine true casualness.

Record Keeping for Casuals

You must keep records for each casual employee:

• Hours worked each week
• Hourly rate paid and casual loading applied
• Paid family and domestic violence leave taken and balance remaining
• Unpaid carer’s/compassionate leave occasions taken
• Public holidays worked and penalties paid
• Superannuation contributions made

Retain these records for at least 3 years.

Calculating Casual Pay (Example)

Let’s say you have a casual working variable hours:

Week 1: 15 hours at $30/hour base rate, 25% casual loading applies, no public holiday that week

Payments for Week 1:

• Loaded hourly rate: $30 × 1.25 = $37.50
• Wages: 15 × $37.50 = $562.50
• Superannuation (12% of ordinary time earnings, no threshold): $562.50 × 0.12 = $67.50

Total cost to employer: $562.50 + $67.50 = $630

There is no separate annual leave or personal leave line — the loading already accounts for those, and superannuation is calculated on the loaded wage. If a public holiday had fallen on a rostered day that week, that day would be paid at the unloaded ordinary rate (or with a penalty if the employee worked it), not the casual rate.

Key Takeaways

• Casual employees are not entitled to paid annual leave or paid personal/carer’s leave — the 25% casual loading compensates for their absence, not funds them
• Casuals do get: 2 days unpaid carer’s leave per occasion, paid family and domestic violence leave (identical to permanents), public holiday pay when rostered to work, and superannuation on every dollar earned
• There is no superannuation earnings threshold — the old $450/month exemption was abolished from 1 July 2022
• Casual conversion (after 6-12 months of regular, systematic hours) is the pathway to actual permanent leave accrual — not an accumulating casual “balance”
• Casuals qualifying for unpaid parental leave must meet the regular-and-systematic-employment test, not just a length-of-service count
• Keep detailed records of hours, rates, superannuation, and public holiday payments for at least 3 years

Non-compliance runs in both directions: paying phantom annual leave accrual wastes money on an entitlement that isn’t owed, while denying superannuation, family and domestic violence leave, or rostered public holiday pay is genuine underpayment and a Fair Work Ombudsman enforcement priority.

This article is general information about Australian employment law, not legal advice. Entitlements can vary by award or enterprise agreement — check the one that applies to your casual employees.

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